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Friday, August 31, 2012

Cute, huh? Just a way to begin to share with you what an unusual day this has been. Let me start this morning. I was supposed to call League of Cities to find out what constituted a forum for a City Council meeting. We have three City Council members and a Mayor. One of the counselors had indicated that s/he might not be able to attend our next scheduled meeting. Please note the 'our'. I have taken a keen interest in the proceedings of this Council for a variety of reasons mostly centered around the attempt of rapacious developers to move into our community to turn once vacated houses into 'man camps' - houses which once had three bedrooms suddenly are houses with fourteen or fifteen bedrooms, each one rented out at a cost of some $500-$750 a night for each resident.

Profits! Damn profits could ruin the quiet, community supported environment in which we live.

I became deeply involved in attempting to stop this rape of Flaxton. I know, 'Good luck with that, sister.'

So, I've been agitating. I agitate rather effectively as some of you know. However, as you also may know, events don't always turn as I intend. It is important that they turn as I intend this time or I'm going to be looking for a new home in America - not a bad thing, but we have grown fond of the good folks in this community and dearly love the beauty of our prairie.

It's late at the moment and so I'll finish this tale on the morrow. 11:38 in the evening is late enough for a beginning but not quite early enough for an ending. Catch you on the morrow.

Monday, August 27, 2012

In quiet praise of introverts in a loud world

Tim Soutphommasane

Extroverts don't have all the answers, even if they think they do.

MOST people I know have taken at some stage the Myers-Briggs
personality test. For a long time, I refused to be tested, partly
because I thought my personality should be one aspect of life that isn't
subjected to quasi-scientific evaluation. My act of resistance, I told
myself, was a defiant gesture against the triumph of managerialism in
modern life.
A few weeks ago I succumbed to an idle moment of weakness. I
took a quick test online and discovered, among other things, that I was
supposedly an introvert.
This surprised me a little as I had always assumed I was an
extrovert. I don't mind crowds; I enjoy speaking and debating in public.
Few of my friends would describe me as the shy or retiring type.
Yet the truth is I've always had a side of me that has
cherished intense solitude. My research work as a political philosopher
tends to be done alone among books. I am often most fulfilled when I am
deep in thought or writing. There remains something about ''the life of
the mind'' that appeals to me.

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Modern Western cultures don't always value such an
orientation. For example, many have traditionally considered Australians
to be utilitarian in our approach to life. It is said that we prefer
the practical over the theoretical. Our idealised national personality
is based on the idea of ''having a go'', something usually regarded as
the opposite of contemplative reflection.
In her recent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking,
American writer Susan Cain explores some of the cultural assumptions
behind Western thinking about temperament and personality. In her view,
our modern social norms are defined by a celebration of the ''Extrovert
Ideal''. We seem to admire a particular type of individual: the one who
isn't afraid to put themselves forward.
As a result, introversion is now a second-class personality
trait, a symptom of moral impairment. We have, according to Cain, turned
extroversion ''into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we
must conform''.
This has been a long time in the making. Since around the
turn of the 20th century there has been a shift from a culture of
character to a culture of personality. Whereas we once believed the
ideal self was defined by discipline, honour and moral purpose, we now
place greater emphasis on openness, sociability and charisma. The self
has come to be about performance rather than integrity.
Much of Cain's story reflects the development of American
society and the demands of mature capitalism. The rise of big business
and urbanisation meant there was an advantage to being a ''mighty
likeable fellow''. Being affable was important to getting ahead not only
in large anonymous workplaces, but also getting on in a society of
strangers.
However, what may have started as something American is now
definitively global. There is something about the Extrovert Ideal that
seems true of our own Australian experience.
Any trend towards the priority of personality over character
has, moreover, been reinforced by technological change. Therapeutic
narcissism may define future generations, if it doesn't already define
some current ones. Fewer and fewer musings are left private; the modern
self is about self-disclosure. Social media, for those of us who use it,
mean that we are permanently connected to the thoughts and whims of
friends and acquaintances.
As Cain powerfully argues, our easy acceptance of extroversion mightn't be a good thing.
There is something wrong with believing that the ideal self
must be ''gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight''. The
behaviour associated with confident extroversion doesn't necessarily
lead to better results. Researchers have found that introverted CEOs
tend to perform better than extroverted ones. Pundits on American
television have been shown to be less likely than random chance to make
correct predictions about political and economic trends.
There is much in Cain's insightful book that is worth
considering. It isn't always a good thing to be bold and certain.
Sometimes it is better to be unassuming and reflective - to listen and
not talk. And it is possible to have multiple sides to one's
personality: we aren't all simply extroverted or introverted, but
exhibit such characteristics in degrees.
Modern societies, increasingly defined by pluralism, contain a
paradox. We may need to look within before we can live better with
others. It is the test of citizenship today that we accept moral and
cultural differences, and learn from them. But we can't understand
others unless we first understand ourselves.
In more practical terms, we shouldn't assume that the most
vocal or confident person is the one who is correct or the one who
should lead. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi put it: ''Those
who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.''

I am confused by the inability of Tea Party folks who refuse to be influenced by science. I do realize that we must not generalize and assume that all Tea Party folk subscribe to the incantations of a few, but the current platforms of the Republican Party strongly assert not only a disinterest in science but also a rather profound subscription to the idea that science is to be disbelieved or disregarded.

What kind of a nation have we become that we allow such nonsense to take the stage of our national attention? How poor is our educational system that it produces folks who actually choose to follow the precepts of a 2000 - 5000 year old entities when modern science has so thoroughly disproved the rantings of the books these folks call HOLY.

I suppose holey is accurate. These books are full of ideas that dig holes for our intellect. Many of these potholes of information have been filled by scientific data which has improved our modes of travel to the point that we have a much more accurate and effective understanding of how this planet and the denizen thereof function.

I can only assume that the Tea Party leaders, like their predecessors in the Catholic Church in the 1500s, believe there is money to be made by keeping their followers in a state of ignorance.

Sigh. Is it too much to ask people to actually research and think for themselves instead of allowing someone else to do the hard work for them? For some it seems so.

OVER six frightening months, a deadly
superbug germ untreatable by most antibiotics spread in a top US hospital.

Pretty soon, a patient a week was catching
the bug. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health locked down patients,
cleaned with bleach, even ripped out plumbing - and still the germ persisted.

By the end, 18 people harboured the
dangerous germ, and six died of bloodstream infections from it. Another five
made it through the outbreak only to die from the diseases that brought them to
NIH's world-famous campus in the first place.

It took gene detectives teasing apart the
bacteria's DNA to solve the germ's wily spread, a CSI-like saga with lessons
for hospitals everywhere as they struggle to contain the growing threat of
superbugs.

It all stemmed from a single patient
carrying a fairly new superbug known as KPC - Klebsiella pneumoniae that
resists treatment by one of the last lines of defense, antibiotics called
carbapenems.

"We never want this to happen
again," said Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the NIH
Clinical Centre.

Infections at health care facilities are
one of the US' leading causes of preventable death, claiming an estimated
99,000 lives a year. They're something of a silent killer, as hospitals fearful
of lawsuits don't like to publicly reveal when germs outfox infection control -
yet no hospital is immune.

Today, US government researchers published
an unusually candid account of last year's outbreak, with some advice: Fast
sequencing of a germ's genome, its full DNA, may be essential. It can reveal
how drug-resistant bacteria are spreading so that doctors can protect other
patients.

"This is not an easy story to
tell," said Dr. Julie Segre, a senior investigator at NIH's National Human
Genome Research Institute.

Dr Segre led the genetic sleuthing that
found the bug hiding in sink drains and, most chilling, even in a ventilator
that had been cleaned with bleach.

Infection-control specialists at other
hospitals called this detailed anatomy of an outbreak, published in the journal
Science Translational Medicine, important to share.

"They were able to demonstrate that
this sneaky little bug was able to stay alive and get transmitted in ways they
hadn't quite predicted before they had the detailed genetic information,"
said Dr. Sara Cosgrove, associate hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins
University.

"It's very revealing."

"Absolutely this could happen in any
hospital," said Dr. Deverick Anderson, co-director of a Duke University
infection control network that advises smaller community hospitals.

"This is really exciting stuff,
cutting-edge technology, to try and better understand how these infections get
spread," he added. That in turn may lead to new protections, important
because "there's something that's very, very wrong about going to a
hospital and becoming more ill."

Normally, the Klebsiella bacteria live in
human intestines and don't harm people with healthy immune systems. But the
multidrug-resistant strain named KPC has emerged over the past decade to become
a fast-growing threat in intensive care units, spreading easily between very
ill people and killing half of those it sickens.

Worse, people can carry KPC without symptoms
unless the germs slip into the urinary tract or bloodstream - theirs or the
person's in the next bed - through a catheter or surgical wound.

The 243-bed NIH Clinical Centre, in
Washington's suburbs, is a unique hospital, only treating people enrolled in
government research studies.

So on June 13, 2011, a research nurse
carefully checked the medical records as a New York City hospital transferred a
study participant who had become critically ill with a rare lung disease. The
nurse found that the patient had KPC as well.

The woman went into strict isolation:
Everyone entering her room donned a protective gown and gloves and rigorously
washed their hands. Her medical equipment got special decontamination. All
other patients in the ICU had their throats and groins tested regularly to see
if the bug was spreading.

All seemed OK. The woman recovered, and
went home on July 15.

Fast forward three weeks. Now a man with
cancer has KPC despite never crossing paths with Patient No. 1. Ten days later,
a woman with an immune disease fell ill, too. Both patients died of the
infection.

Did they arrive carrying their own KPC
bacteria, or did that first patient's germ somehow escape into the hospital?
Standard tests couldn't tell. Dr Segre, the geneticist, turned to DNA.

As bacteria multiply, mistakes appear and
are repaired in their genetic code. Sequencing that genome allowed Dr Segre to
follow differences in single genetic letters like a trail of the germ's
transmission and evolution.

Sure enough, the KPC originated from the
New York patient despite NIH's precautions. Testing bacteria from the 17
additional patients who ultimately caught it shows the KPC was transmitted
three separate times from Patient No. 1, and then spread more widely.

Even this sophisticated technology couldn't
prove exactly how transmission occurred. But it turns out that Patient 3 had
been in the ICU at the same time as the New York woman and really was the next
infected, silently carrying the bug longer before becoming sick. That was enough
time for Patient 3's infection to spread to Patient 2, who just got sick
faster.

Meanwhile, NIH was making big changes. All
the ICU patients underwent more invasive testing, using rectal swabs, to check
for silent germ carriers. A new wall created a separate ICU to house them.
Doctors, nurses, even janitors assigned there could work nowhere else, and
monitors were paid to make sure everyone followed infection-control rules.

Yet a patient a week was either becoming
infected or found to be a silent carrier of the same KPC strain.

"Honestly, we were very scared at that
point," Dr Segre recalled.

Test after test failed to find the bug on
hospital workers' hands.

Tainted objects like the ventilator
couldn't be ruled out - but NIH adopted more complex and expensive
decontamination, using robot-like machines to spray germ-killing hydrogen
peroxide into the tiniest of crevices in all affected rooms and equipment.

Still, November brought more bad news: The
outbreak strain had escaped the ICU. Two patients who'd never been there now
were carrying the bug. A new isolation room was built, and all 200-plus
patients in the hospital started undergoing rectal testing.

The outbreak now is over, the last carrier
found in December. But NIH isn't dropping its guard. The isolation room
remains, used every time one of the seven outbreak survivors returns to the
hospital for their ongoing research studies - because they still carry the
strain. Those rectal tests continue, hospital-wide once a month, to be sure no
new KPC strain sneaks in.

Bacterial sequencing is becoming fast and
cheap enough for most large hospitals to use during tough outbreaks, said Dr.
Lance Peterson, microbiology and infectious disease director at NorthShore
University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill.

But another lesson is how much it takes to
guard against these bugs sneaking in in the first place. Dr Peterson said his
hospital does weekly rectal testing of every ICU patient as a precaution.

"There's better technology becoming available for your hospital to
prevent these bacteria from spreading.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Here is the link to a very interesting set of studies on the brain. I include one paragraph to whet your appetite. Yep, it's about chocolate, but you probably already know what it's gonna say. The other nine paragraphs are equally as important. Go take a look.

"2) Send grandpa a vat of chocolate: Here’s yet another reason chocolate is awesome.
Italian researchers have found that a cocoa drink rich in flavanols–the
antidioxidants found in chocolate–can help sharpen the brains of people
with memory problems. The antidioxidants are believed to protect brain
cells and improve blood flow."

Monday, August 20, 2012

Don'cha just love theory that opens itself up to scrutiny. Don'cha just wish politicos would do the same, that we had not only the right but the avenue to challenge the nonsense that some politicos spout. Oh, I realize there are web sites on which we can post or search for non-truths that are claimed in the political arena, but the problem is that so few of us actually take the opportunity to do so.

It is my experience that folks believe whatever suits their preconceived notions of reality rather than take the risk of finding that those preconceptions may well be folklore rather than truthlore. Truthiness reigns in politics more often than truth tellers.

Polifacts is a website you might want to check: http://www.politifact.com

Snopes is another: http://www.snopes.com/

If you enjoy finding out how to tell when a politico is lying in the first place: http://www.humanliedetection.com/

I find The League of Woman Voters apt at providing unvarnished truths: http://www.lwv.org/

As well, I seek information from The Christian Science Monitor who seem to present a balanced view of the news. You may wish to check them out: http://www.csmonitor.com/

If there are other websites that ought to be included in this list, please comment below. I'll check them out and add if they are valid sources of 'truth'.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Just came across a New York Times article complete with photo spread of the new drilling in the Bakkan Oil Fields of North Dakota and Montana. I hadn't realized that the fields stretched so far. I realized that Alberta and Saskatchewan were involved, but had no idea the fields stretched almost 600 miles west into Montana and abutted Glacier National Park. The issues of the article surround the fact that the Montana oil is located on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. You may wish to take a look at the article and the pics associated. I have copied one picture to share. Below is link to article and photos.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Where have I been? Right here on the harvesting prairie! Seems early, doesn't it? But the combines are laying hay rows, wheat rows, wind rows in every corner of this paradise. When the fog comes in just before dawn, the combiners role over and go back to sleep, but when the day dawns with sunshine, they're out taking moisture content checks to see if the crop can be harvested — if the answer is yes, you'll see them from dawn to dark..and here that means from 6 a.m. til 9:30 p.m. combing the land for the last precious fruit.

All of that has nothing to do with me except that I am amazed by the energy of these knowledgeable folks who provide food for the planet.

Today I wanted to share one of the SCIENCE quotes that came to my attention on Facebook via my facebuddy Kenneth. He has gathered some of the best quotes into an album..and I wanted to share them with you, one at a time for a while. Carl Sagan is featured in several. I hope they are thought provoking for you rather as the farmers who surround me are providers of thought provoking moments for me.

Monday, August 06, 2012

"The study, conducted over 11 years and following 24,000 people looked
at the supplementation habits of people who were not only healthy but
also had a variety of health conditions.
What they found was alarming- people who included calcium as a staple
in their supplements were more than 80% more likely to suffer from a
heart attack as those who did not supplement with calcium."

Thursday, August 02, 2012

How long does it take to write a novel? Forever, it seems. My current project began five years ago. Can you believe it?

Five years have passed since Lorraine and I first shared a dark chocolate delicacy in a little sidewalk cafe' in Brisbane. It was a very warm week-day afternoon. We were the only ones in the establishment. Our conversation took an unexpected turn when I suggested (or did she suggest) that we write a memoir of our adventures.

Why would we believe anyone care about the planetary adventures of two middle aged women who, our of some sort of boredom, embarked on a Masters degree in wRiting, eDiting, and pUblishing at the University of Queensland?

I'm not sure, but a tinge of narcissism seems a possibility. We both knew we had a knack for writing. Lorraine has a 'wicked' sense of humor (kind of like the Queen's), and I have a wealth of knowledge about the rules. Yeah, her strength is far more saleable than my own, but out of innocence comes all kinds of surprises.

At the end of three years, Lorraine opted out. We had a half a book when we put all our material together and no one in Oz was particularly interested in reading about how two ex-pats ended up married to two Aussie blokes in Queensland.

Had we planted ourselves in Melbourne, we might have had a chance, but Brisbane? Really?!

Not willing to give in to my penchant for beginning without ending, I have endured. My own chapters have morphed into 73,000 words. Currently, the biggest hurdle is creating a first chapter that is intriguing enough to catch the attention of an agent or a publisher..no easy task, it seems.

But, I'm tough and determined.

Here once again is my suggestion for the cover blurb for my paperback. See what you think:

Demi Tryon flees to the mountains to
escape memories of her absent mother and abusive father in Bogs of Misunderstanding — High Terrains of Pleasure, a 73,000 word literary fiction. After
all, death defying sport can you make you forget most anything.

After facing down a 300 pound bear
salivating over her food, she’s decides there’s safety in numbers.Scouring the Internet, she meets Sy, an
Australian mountaineer who loves the back country almost as much as she
does.And god help her, she likes
him, too.Not as a safety-buddy, but for his
ridiculous smile and his no-nonsense approach to the world.Sy’s never run from anything.Including her.

The two spar. She accepts his invitation to join him in Australia
where her crisis over abandonment creates turmoil. Like the Greek goddess
Demeter, her namesake, Demi needs to heal her inner child, the Persephone
within, or spend the rest of her life in the dark.

Readers who enjoy
midlife-coming-of-age stories that focus on descriptions of natural beauty and
personal transformation such as Four
Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea by Kira Salak (Nov 1,
2004) and Holly Morris’ Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for
Women Who Are Changing the World (Oct 31, 2006) will find themselves
engaged in Demi’s journey.